Net income increased to 7.54 billion yuan ($1.23 billion),
or 0.18 yuan a share, from 4.92 billion yuan, or 0.14 yuan a
share, a year earlier, Beijing-based PICC Group, as the company
is known, said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Chairman Wu Yan boosted premiums income in the first half
amid the nation’s economic slowdown after raising HK$24 billion
($3.1 billion) in an initial public offering in Hong Kong in
November to fund its business expansion. Premiums income at PICC
Property & Casualty Co. (2328), the main revenue contributor, climbed
14 percent to 115.3 billion yuan as underwriting profit grew and
investment income increased, the non-life unit said in a
separate statement.

“Underwriting profit should increase as premiums grow,
although margins probably narrowed” as competition in the
property insurance market intensified, Fanny Chen, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Haitong International Securities Group, said
before the announcement. “Insurers also face much smaller
pressures from impairments this year after last year’s huge
write-downs.”

PICC P&C’s combined ratio, used to gauge claims and
expenses as a percentage of premiums earned, rose 1.2 percentage
point from the record-low 92.4 percent in the first half of last
year to 93.6 percent, according to the statement. Lower combined
ratio means higher profitability.

China Life Insurance Co. said July 30 that first-half
profit may rise by more than 50 percent as investment income
rose and impairment losses fell. The nation’s biggest life
insurer recorded 31.1 billion yuan of such write-downs last
year, jumping 140 percent from the previous year.